The man­ag­ing direc­tor of Van Cleef & Ar­pels for Southeast Asia on the new Cade­nas time­piece and her jew­ellery sig­na­ture.
By Cai Mei Khoo.

The Cade­nas watch was first cre­ated in 1935. Why was it cho­sen to be rein­ter­preted this year? Well, it is an iconic de­sign of the mai­son, as much as the Zip neck­lace is to our high jew­ellery. Avant-garde in the 1930s, it re­mains ex­tremely con­tem­po­rary. The rein­ter­pre­ta­tion is ac­tu­ally very faith­ful to the orig­i­nal de­sign. At first glance it doesn’t look like a time­piece. It is a true jewel that tells the time. Tell us why the Cade­nas, as, which means ‘lock’ in French, nch, in­forms the de­sign. There is a tra­di­tion in Paris for cou­ples to at­tach locks to the Pont des Arts. A lock se­cures and binds two el­e­ments,ts, and the Cade­nas is a strong sym­bol of loveve bonds. For the third an­niver­sary of the Duke e and Duchess of Wind­sor, she re­ceived a Cade­nas enas watch in plat­inum with di­a­monds on a snakeke chain. Does the Cade­nas re­flect love, luck, and the po­etry of time? It is a per­fect sym­bol of love and cann hide a se­cret mes­sage en­graved in its clasp. This bold, ab­stract style has al­ways been part of the mai­son’s aes­thetic, es­pe­cially in the 1930s’ Ludo cre­ations, the Etr­uscan bracelets worn by Jackie Onas­sis, and sautoirs from the 1970s. Your per­sonal favourite from SIHH 2015? The Ab­strac­tion High Jew­ellery time­piece is just breath­tak­ing! W

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Your sig­na­ture pieces? My Fleurette pen­dant, the first Van Cleef & Ar­pels piece I ever owned. Also a Be­tween the Fin­ger ring – so unique, light, and fem­i­nine – and an Al­ham­bra bracelet, which I touch spon­ta­neously as a lucky charm all day long. Pieces of jew­ellery that ev­ery woman should own? A Vin­tage Al­ham­bra sautoir, a di­a­mond soli­taire, two Per­lée ban­gles, and a clip to be worn in myr­iad ways. Be­ing 13 ye years with Van Cleef & Ar­pels, what are your ca ca­reer high­lights? A mile­stone was in 2006 when we cel­e­brated the 100th an­niver­sary of the mai­son. That was a tremen­dously cre­ative year with three col­lec­tions of high jew­ellery and fresh Al­hambr Al­ham­bra de­signs. It was a trib­ute to her­itage, and a new step to­wards the fu­ture. What is the Van Cleef & Ar­pels dif­fer­ence? Its unique style, the pos­i­tive vi­sion of life its cre­ations con­vey, a no-com­pro­mise ap­proach in the qual­ity of stones used, and the per­ma­nent quest for ex­cel­lence in crafts­man­ship. A paint­ing of the Haute Joail­lerie Ab­strac­tion time­piece